422 



that lost in faeces, urine and gas voided, and that required for mastication and diges- 

 tion of food. A short method of computing rations to supply the daily need of dairy 

 cows has been outlined. 1 



Production Records. Recent advances in the price of feed and labour have rendered 

 unprofitable the cow producing a low yield of milk and butter fat, and have stimulated 

 interest in the securing of accurate data as to actual production by individual cows, 

 through the Advanced Registry, local cooperative test associations and private records. 

 The elimination of unprofitable cows and the increased consumption of dairy products 

 have stimulated the demand for profitable cows until prices are from 50 to 150% higher 

 than five years ago. 



Advanced Registry Testing of pure bred dairy cows is the result of a demand for 

 accurate, impartial knowledge of the year's production of milk and butter fat by indi- 

 vidual cows. The agricultural experiment stations of most American states send a 

 representative to see the milk from each cow weighed for two days per month, and de- 

 termine its fat content, which with the owner's daily record furnishes the basis of milk 

 yield for the month's estimate of butter fat production. Compared with the average 

 production per cow for the United States of less than 1 50 pounds of butter fat in one 

 year, the highest individual records in each of the leading breeds are significant:- 

 Holstein cow, Banostine Belle De Kol, 27,404.4 Ibs. milk, 1058.34 Ibs. fat; Jersey 

 cow, Jacoba Irene, 17,253.0 Ibs. milk, 952.95 Ibs. fat; Guernsey cow, Spotswood 

 Daisy Pearl, 18,602.8 Ibs. milk, 957.38 Ibs. fat; Ayrshire cow, Netherhall Brownie 

 9th, 18,110.0 Ibs. milk, 820.91 Ibs. fat. 



Mechanical Milkers. Scarcity and high price of labour has stimulated a demand 

 for the mechanical milker. The Burrell, Lawrence, Kennedy and Sharpies mechanical 

 milkers seem now to have reached a degree of efficiency where it may be said that they 

 will milk most cows as well as or better than the average man, though not as well as the best 

 hand milker, while a few cows cannot be milked thoroughly by either machine. They 

 require more intelligent attention to operate and clean than the common labourer 

 ordinarily is competent to give, though within the reach of the better grade of farm 

 labour; they are usually most successful in the hands of the intelligent farm owner 

 who operates his own machine instead of depending on employes. 



National Dairy Show. In America a National Annual Exposition of the dairy in- 

 dustry has become firmly established in Chicago. The show of 1912 brought together 

 nearly 1,000 of the finest dairy cattle, every kind of mechanical device from stable fixtures 

 to pasteurizer, churns and laboratory equipment, and attractive displays of butter, 

 cheese, milk and cream from many states. Commercial demonstration of latest methods 

 of bottle washing, pasteurization and bottling of milk for retail delivery and making of 

 butter, occupied much space, as did the United States government demonstration of feed- 

 ing methods with profitable and unprofitable dairy cows and municipal exhibits of 

 the influence of bad housing, poor milk and preventable diseases on infant mortality 

 in great cities. Visitors were present from every section of the United States, Canada 

 and England. (H. E. VAN NORMAN.) 



POULTRY FARMING 



Within the last few years the abandonment of a number of the largest spectacular 

 poultry farms in America has had a marked effect upon the general attitude there to- 

 ward large poultry projects. People are not so ready to engage in them, or to take 

 reports of quick successes on a large scale at their face value. The public is learning 

 to discriminate as qualified observers acquainted with the history of various enter- 

 prises of this kind have always done, between the real and the fictitious successes. 

 There are many large poultry farms in the United States and the number may greatly 

 increase, but too many of those kept prominently before the public as practical 

 poultry farms have used the publicity that could be thus secured to advertise some- 

 thing that they had to sell, not to consumers of poultry produce but to producers. 



1 Bulletin No. 1 14, Pennsylvania Experiment Station. 



